It is one of the most common birds in the country.
The turdus merulla, (scientific name) the blackbird, has a song that leaves no one indifferent, though his species is very little appreciated by the farmers, because the similarities they share with the starlings. In Portugal, there are three different specimens resulting from geographical isolation. The Azores and Madeira, with the exception of the island of Porto Santo, respectively have two completely different types of exemplar's from the existing species on the continent, but these features are not physically visible, are only demarcate by their genetic code that distinguishes them from each other.
According to the official website of the birds of Portugal, the Blackbird "presents no difficulties in identifying, highlighting, in the case of males, the general color black, orange beak and yellow halo around the eye. Both the male and the female, have long legs and the tail too. The general pattern of females and juveniles are brown with some faint stripes. Despite the easy identification, it can however be confused with the black starlings, especially in low light conditions. Still, the plumage of this species is matte, while that of starlings is bright. "This bird is distributed throughout the country due to its great capacity to adapt to the environment, it is estimated that there are between 200,000 to 2 million of these small specimens, although it is an inexact number. Recently it was found that the blackbirds abound in cities and more they stay the whole year in our country, although in general, Portuguese and Spanish do not know that they are migratory birds. Many birds fly from northern Europe in winter to the Iberian Peninsula in search of a milder climate and more food. The Turdus merulla is not a threatened species, but the proliferation of cats is believed to have an impact on its numbers.
http://www.avesdeportugal.info/
